Politics

[Red Leg]

More kabuki theater from DC.

Lots of tax dollars will be spent…

And zero will actually come from it…

Exactly. And there is no speakership for the right wing of the republican party to hold hostage to even get this out of the House.

 

[Hogpatrol]

 

[Wheels]

 

[geoff rath]

Thank God Townsend @Bob Nelson 35Whelen survived!

I suspect he's too tough to go that way

 

[WAB]

Have you guys seen Trump’s tweet calling his ex staffer a sleazebag and a loser because she criticized his performance on the CNN event? I’m quickly moving toward TT and RedLeg’s position. I just don’t see how I can vote for him if he become’s the republican nominee. A nation of 300 million people and this is what we have to deal with?!

 

[MD Driver]

Much of this depends on the variant of F15 and F16 we're talking about.. As a rule, eagles and their pilots run roughshod over falcon/vipers and their pilots in training engagements if we're talking air to air / fighter to fighter.. (I get this directly from numerous F15 and F16 pilots that all spent between 20-35 years in the USAF, are Weapons School grads (USAF version of "Top Gun"), retired between the rank of O5 - O10, etc..

Air to ground is a different story.. depending on the mission and the circumstance there are many scenarios where the 16 is the clear better choice..

FWIW in my "day job" I run a defense firm that was founded by a pair of USAF fighter pilots.. most of the work the company did for its first 10 years was in direct support of USAF fighter squadrons (the portfolio is much more diverse today).. when I first came on board, literally 50% of the senior leadership of the company were retired USAF fighter pilots.. most of whom flew 15's and 16's (some of the old dogs primarily flew F4's and 104's).. One of our board members is the former ACC commander that was responsible for initially fielding the F22, etc..etc...

While Im just an old Army dog... I have sat through hundreds upon hundreds of hours of "war stories" related to how my viper is better than your eagle.... or my eagle kicks your falcons ass... only to hear them all get laughed at by the current flock of F22 and F35 guys that work with us.. lol..

While deployed to the sandbox for Enduring Freedom, our planes (tankers) of course needed maintenance, but especially so after flying in the desert conditions there. We “only trusted” our own heavy maintenance, so we set up a nice maintenance rotation schedule, which was great since it have our guys a chance to spend a few weeks at home. At the time, Edwards was pleading for tanker support since most were overseas, for the F-22 test program. We happily obliged since the flying there was great (hadn’t been there since flying the T-38 as a lieutenant), and the F-22 flight testing was a real kick to be a part of, albeit in a small way. Once airborne, we’d orbit over Lake Isabella and wait for the F-22 to come out of his supersonic corridor to gas up again. In doing so, he head straight at us, and right about the time I’d see him from our eyebrow windows in the cockpit, he’d roll inverted and pull straight down at us. “Holy shit!” we’re the universally uttered words from every newbie on his first sortie out there. Anyway, the F-22 had it timed perfectly since we were moving at around .82-.84 mach. He’d do a square, thrust vectored high-g pull and pop into a perfect precontact position behind us. It was masterful. His F-16 chase plane would try to match his pull, and he’d be in an accelerated stall maybe a half-mile away if he was good.

Those new generation fighters are just nuts in capability.

 

[PHOENIX PHIL]

While deployed to the sandbox for Enduring Freedom, our planes (tankers) of course needed maintenance, but especially so after flying in the desert conditions there. We “only trusted” our own heavy maintenance, so we set up a nice maintenance rotation schedule, which was great since it have our guys a chance to spend a few weeks at home. At the time, Edwards was pleading for tanker support since most were overseas, for the F-22 test program. We happily obliged since the flying there was great (hadn’t been there since flying the T-38 as a lieutenant), and the F-22 flight testing was a real kick to be a part of, albeit in a small way. Once airborne, we’d orbit over Lake Isabella and wait for the F-22 to come out of his supersonic corridor to gas up again. In doing so, he head straight at us, and right about the time I’d see him from our eyebrow windows in the cockpit, he’d roll inverted and pull straight down at us. “Holy shit!” we’re the universally uttered words from every newbie on his first sortie out there. Anyway, the F-22 had it timed perfectly since we were moving at around .82-.84 mach. He’d do a square, thrust vectored high-g pull and pop into a perfect precontact position behind us. It was masterful. His F-16 chase plane would try to match his pull, and he’d be in an accelerated stall maybe a half-mile away if he was good.

Those new generation fighters are just nuts in capability.

I believe the F-22 has thrust vectoring capability. I was still working at the General Dynamics plant (now Lockheed I believe) when GD won the contest for the F-22. Pretty amazing plane.

 

[Tundra Tiger]

@WAB ... I had not seen that. I just looked it up.

He makes your average 5 year old look mature by comparison. Just... wow.

I remain optimistic: it is NOT too late. DeSantis can still make it happen.

 

[gballard137]

Have you guys seen Trump’s tweet calling his ex staffer a sleazebag and a loser because she criticized his performance on the CNN event? I’m quickly moving toward TT and RedLeg’s position. I just don’t see how I can vote for him if he become’s the republican nominee. A nation of 300 million people and this is what we have to deal with?!

At least trump can say a full sentence without mumbling and actually makes sense

 

[PARA45]

Have you guys seen Trump’s tweet calling his ex staffer a sleazebag and a loser because she criticized his performance on the CNN event? I’m quickly moving toward TT and RedLeg’s position. I just don’t see how I can vote for him if he become’s the republican nominee. A nation of 300 million people and this is what we have to deal with?!

Just saw it, wow. So unprofessional.

 

[Major Bonkers]

From the Meduza website:

How Russia tries to send agents to the U.S. through Mexico​

On March 8, 2023, a congressman from Texas named Pat Fallon demandedthe U.S. Customs and Border Protection provide a public report on how thoroughly it vets Russians who try to enter the U.S. from Mexico.

“We have a very porous border,” said Fallon. The United States Northern Command had already warned of an increase in the activity of GRU officers in Mexico, he noted, and since the fall of 2022, more than 21,000 Russians had tried to enter the country from the south. “Most illegals don’t carry any documents,” he added. “What’s the likelihood that the records check our officers run will reveal the person’s real identity?”

Since February 2022, about 50 Russians have been arrested on suspicion of working for the FSB at the U.S.-Mexico border, terrorism expert Vera Mironova told Meduza, citing contacts she has in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

These suspects have shown up at various border crossing points and have all told roughly the same story. “Most of them say, ‘I’m an activist, or an NGO worker, or a journalist. I went to protests, and now they’re persecuting me. Let me in,’” Mironova said. “They’ve caught 50. Can you imagine how many they haven’t caught?”

[...]

“How did Vladislav [the FSB agent-handler] put it? ‘We don’t work for nothing, we have to make money. We’re going to make money! And the [intelligence] that the higher-ups ask for — well, we’ll give them what they want to hear.’”

Among other things, Voronin was insistent that Kultanov find a buyer for “counterfeit dollars, forged documents, passports, and stamps” — and that he inquire “about cryptocurrency transfers.” “From what I understood, there was some stolen money, and they needed to find a card they could use to transfer it to Turkey, use it to buy crypto here, and send it to Russia,” Kultanov told Meduza. “Vladislav promised to give me a cut.”

The FSB officers Kultanov worked with tried to earn money in other ways, too, namely contract killings. [...]

 

[WAB]

At least trump can say a full sentence without mumbling and actually makes sense

My dog makes more sense than Biden!

 

[mdwest]

My dog makes more sense than Biden!

and sniffs less children..

 

[gballard137]

My dog makes more sense than Biden!

It’s offensive to your dog to compare such a smart animal like a dog to Joe Biden.

 

[Tundra Tiger]

At least trump can say a full sentence without mumbling and actually makes sense

The first part, yes; the second part is not a given, if you mean anything beyond actually hearing and understanding the words that are spoken. Some of the stuff he says - the vitriol - makes zero sense to me.

I am fully on with DeSantis, and while I haven't heard very much about Scott, he sounds articulate and intelligent in interviews. Depending on how things fall out, maybe DeSantis/Scott? (as opposed to my thoughts over the last year of DeSantis/Noem, which I still like the idea of) The bottom line: better choices exist.

 

[Tundra Tiger]

and sniffs less children..

Well played sir!

 

[Scott CWO]

At least trump can say a full sentence without mumbling and actually makes sense

Yeah but that doesn’t mean much to me coming from an idiot like Trump and I’m about as conservative as one can be. NRA member since 16 years old and grew up during the Cold War. Fellow Republicans have got to let go of this idiot and back Desantis. Trump doesn’t make sense even though he can talk.

 

[Katy Darren]

And yet, it’s still an easy decision who to vote for if it’s Trump who wins the nomination. Not even close, I’d never consider allowing the slide to socialism continue. The Dems will put the worst candidates ever into office (Biden) or the senate (Fetterman) to just win and we’ll keep shooting ourselves in the foot as the ship goes down.

 

[Tundra Tiger]

You are correct: it increasingly becomes an easy decision. We differ, however, on what that easy decision is.

I guess it's always possible that former President Trump has his own Road to Damascus experience, and the scales of pettiness fall away. I'm not going to hold my breath on that one.

However, it matters not in the least: DeSantis is going to be the nominee, at which point it will be a very easy decision.

 

[PARA45]

What I'm afraid of is that if Trump doesn't win the nomination, he'll run as an independent (the man can't accept defeat), and phuck us all by taking those voters who would vote for him, vs. voting for someone else.